God, the Father loves the lost. God, the Father loves the believer. Jesus died for the lost. Jesus lives for the believer. The Holy Spirit is drawing the lost. The Holy Spirit is feeding the believer.
This is the passion that burns in us, motivates us and ignites us—the passion to reach the lost effectively and to feed the believers purposefully! This is our high calling.
We are convinced that God will not sacrifice the lost by leading believers to have a big Holy Ghost party every weekend at the expense of lost people. At the same time, we are convinced that God doesn't want to sacrifice believers and cause them to dry on the vine by focusing every service on lost people at the expense of believers being fed. This is a delicate balance and the only Person that can manage it is the Holy Spirit Himself!
Our job as church leaders is to "read" the flow of the Spirit in our planning, praying, preparations and preaching. The sad reality is that it's easy to fall into one ditch or another. One church may be enjoying Holy Ghost meetings every week, singing for an hour or so, shouting and running around the room. Believers are being blessed and refreshed, but unbelievers are staying away in droves.
Then there's the other church that won't allow any form of heartfelt, lift-the-hands-worship, no spontaneous flow of the Spirit—just a few entertaining songs and a message that connects with the lost. The lost are flocking and being saved, but their growth is shallow and the rest of the believers are starving. Is it possible to offer a culturally relevant church that is reaching both groups of people?
We have always believed it is possible. We have made it our mission from day one of KVFC.
It takes patience. It takes faith. It would be easier to go for one ditch or the other.
Ditch #1:
It's easy and fun to lead a service for believers only ... line-upon-line Bible teaching, lengthy praise and worship, freedom in the Spirit ... this is fun for us Christians—it's a blast. As long as the believers are fed and fired up—it's all good! We could just forget about the lost while they stare with the deer in headlights look ... never to return. But ... we can't do that!
Ditch #2:
It's easy and fun to craft a service full of cool songs, music, moving lights, performance-oriented worship, a simple message with a verse of Scripture or two and a few tear-jerker videos. The lost respond ... but the believers feel starved and unsatisfied with only "milk & toast". We can't do that either!
God cares about both groups of people ... the lost sheep and His Body of believers!
In order to reach the lost and feed believers, we've had to go slower than some people like. Some believers would prefer us to be more "charismatic" in every service ... and some of our seekers don't exactly understand all the "charismatic" stuff. God is helping us to flow with His Spirit to be what we need to be in each service, for those that are attending. It's been a real faith adventure ... trusting the Holy Spirit to customize a service and a series to reach the lost and to feed the believers.
We have had to train the believers in our church on what to expect, where to set their expectation, how to partake of the entire "buffet of ministry" for the believers at KVFC throughout the week. We've had to raise up a culture of believers who are passionate about reaching their lost, unchurched family and friends ... we have had to give them the security of knowing that when they bring their friends to church it will be safe, genuine, authentic, not watered-down, not performance-oriented, but not freaky, either.
We are so glad that God is not willing to serve one group at the expense of the other, but rather He has a way of reaching into each LOST heart and drawing them to Jesus and growing each BELIEVER up in Him!
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. (Acts 2:17, NIV)
Copyright © 2007 Beth Jones Ministries All rights reserved.
